Brendon Santalab
| cityofbirth = Wollongong, New South Wales | countryofbirth = Australia | height = | position = Striker | nationality = Australian | currentclub = Dandenong City | clubnumber = 11 | youthyears = | youthclubs = Unanderra Hearts South Coast United | years = 2000–2001 2001–2003 2003 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2009 2009 2009–2011 2012–2013 2013–2018 2018–2019 2019– | clubs = Parramatta Power Sydney United Geylang United Sydney United Oostende Sint-Truiden → Újpest FC (loan) Northern Queensland Fury Chengdu Blades Chongqing Lifan Dandenong City | caps(goals) = 8 (1) 28 (7) 22 (23) 14 (5) 22 (3) 9 (0) 0 (0) 23 (4) 0 (0) 40 (18) 35 (15) 97 (35) 18 (2) 2 (2) | nationalyears = | nationalteam = | nationalcaps(goals) = }} Brendon James Santalab (Croatian: Šantalab; born 9 September 1982) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a striker for Dandenong City. Outside of football, Brendon is the Co-Founder and Director of My Game Guru. The world’s first Grassroots sports tracking app for planning and locating sports games. Club career He originally started out as an apprentice at Parramatta Power before moving to Sydney United under the tutelage of Branko Culina. At the end of the 2003–04 National Soccer League season, he moved to K.V. Oostende in the Belgian First Division. After a brief stint, he moved to another Belgian First Division club, K.Sint Truidense V.V. before moving to Hungary for a six-month period with Újpest FC. On 23 June 2007, Santalab was signed by A-League club Sydney FC on a two-year contract, thus reuniting him with Branko Culina. Santalab made 23 appearances for Sydney FC between 2007 and 2009, scoring four goals. During a game against Adelaide United, Santalab scored a goal from outside the box, that curled into the top corner – a goal that was later ruled the 2007–08 season A-League goal of the year. He scored another goal against Adelaide in the 2008–09 season at the Sydney Football Stadium, when he took a shot from 35 metres out, that slammed into the top corner. Sydney won the match 3–0. His fourth goal came during Sydney's 2–1 upset loss against Perth Glory. On 14 November 2008, it was announced that Santalab had signed a two-year contract with then-new A-League side the North Queensland Fury for the 2009–10 season. It was announced by North Queensland, that Chinese Super League club Chengdu Blades may make an offer to him, before the start of the season. North Queensland accepted an offer from Chengdu on 21 July. He scored 9 goals during his 12 appearances with the Chengdu Blades. In 2012, Santalab signed with Chongqing Lifan for one season before signing with the A-League Western Sydney Wanderers. Santalab scored his first goal for Western Sydney Wanderers in the 7th round of the 2013–14 A-League season, losing to Brisbane Roar 3–1 at Suncorp Stadium. On 14 May 2014, in the Asian Champions League game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima with 5 minutes to go, Santalab scored the equalising goal that sent Western Sydney Wanderers FC into the quarter finals of the AFC Champions League. In the 16th round of the 2014–15 A-League season during a home game at Penrith Stadium against Wellington Phoenix, Santalab scored the second goal in a 2–0 win for his first of the season. During Santalab's five seasons with the Western Sydney Wanderers he was awarded the Western Sydney Wanderers Player of the Year in the 2016/17 and received two of the Club's Golden Boot Awards in 2015/16 and 2016/17. He is also the Western Sydney Wanderers highest goal scorer of all time. In June 2018, Santalab signed a one-year deal with Perth Glory, reuniting with former coach and mentor, Tony Popovic. Santalab won the minor premiership with the Glory, but missed a penalty in the shoot-out and subsequently lost the final. In May 2019, Santalab signed for semi-professional side Dandenong City who compete in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. Honours Club Western Sydney Wanderers *AFC Champions League: 2014 Perth Glory * A-League: Premiers 2018–19 Individual *Western Sydney Wanderers Golden Boot Winner 2015–16 *Western Sydney Wanderers Player of the Year: 2016–17 *Western Sydney Wanderers Golden Boot Winner 2016–17 Individual *Western Sydney Wanderers Golden Boot Winner 2015/2016 *Western Sydney Wanderers Player of the Year: 2016–17 *Western Sydney Wanderers Golden Boot Winner 2016/2017 External links * Brendon Santalab's Official Website * Brendon Santalab at Soccerway Category:Players Category:Forwards Category:1982 births Category:Australian players Category:A-League players Category:Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Category:National Soccer League (Australia) players Category:Belgian First Division A players Category:Sint-Truidense V.V. players Category:Northern Fury FC players Category:Parramatta Power players Category:Sydney FC players Category:Dandenong City SC players Category:Sydney United 58 FC players Category:Újpest FC players Category:Perth Glory FC players Category:Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. players Category:Chongqing Lifan F.C. players Category:Geylang International FC players Category:Living people Category:Singapore Premier League players Category:Chinese Super League players Category:China League One players